Bisons ambush Bulldogs

January 20, 2013

CLAYSBURG - A rare Saturday afternoon dual meet wrestled before a sparse crowd at Claysburg-Kimmel, three C-K forfeits and a lopsided final made the Bedford-Claysburg match a little strange.

Not that the Bisons, ranked second in the Mirror rankings, were complaining.

The Bisons, who got to C-K so early that the doors were locked, won seven of the first nine bouts, finished with four pins and a technical fall and beat the Bulldogs, 53-19.

Article Photos

Mirror photo by Patrick WaksmunskiClaysburg-Kimmel’s Dakota Feathers works toward a major decision of Bedford’s Ty Zimmerman in a 152-pound match on Saturday.

"Saturday afternoon is kind of a weird time to get a match in," Bedford coach Brian Creps said, "but I thought we brought intensity. We wrestled fairly well. We've been wrestling fairly well lately, and we have a lot more wrestling in the next two weeks. We've been seeing improvement, and that's what we're looking for."

Saturday night sporting events are prohibited under C-K's school policy, which is why it was held in the afternoon. Junior high and elementary tournaments caused some fans to miss the match.

"I left an elementary tournament my son is wrestling in to come here, and I'm going back," C-K coach Dave Marko said. "I showed up here dressed in red and black, and everybody was like 'What's going on?'"

The match started with a C-K win - Dakota Feathers earning a 14-4 major decision over Ty Zimmerman at 152.

Bedford's Tanner Williams followed with a pin in 1:33 at 160, and teammate Caleb Grimes rang up a 16-0 technical fall in 2:41 over Matt Walter at 170.

The teams exchanged quick pins at 182 and 195, respectively. Bedford's Michael Brett had a 23-second pin at 182, and C-K's Cameron Strayer had a 58-second pin at 195, making the score 17-10 in favor of the Bisons (12-2).

At 220, Bedford's Chance Williams made two takedowns of Tyler Elder, a two-point nearfall and an escape stand in a 7-1 win. Nate Shoemaker followed with a 5-0 win over Joel Hammel at 285.

C-K (10-4) had Jordan Musselman and Cole Lafferty weighed in at 106 and 113, respectively, but Marko chose to forfeit to Jonathan Gabriel (18-1) and Brandon Martin.

"Jordy got hurt last night," Marko said, "and it was a situation where we tried to put him through the warmups, and he wasn't able to do it. Cole Lafferty is injured, and he might miss a little bit of time."

Creps moved Jake Warren up from 113 to face the Mirror's top-ranked 120-pounder, Josh Brown (14-4), and Warren got to within two points, 5-3, in the second when the Bison junior countered a Brown shot for a takedown. But Brown, who will be down to 113 next week, pulled away with a reversal, third-period escape and late takedown to win, 10-4.

"Josh made the one mistake where he got caught up in dragging the guy back in," Marko said. "It was a situation where he was so intent on what he was working that he forgot that the other guy is allowed to score too."

"We knew that was going to be a tough match giving up a little bit of weight," Creps said, "but it was a match he wanted to wrestle and we wanted him to wrestle. Initially, the match was in Brown's favor, but as the match wore on and Jake started to gain some confidence, you could see he could wrestle with him."

The Bisons built bigger leads in the next two weights with pins from top-ranked Ryan Easter (18-1) in a minute at 126 and from Garrett Thomas (17-2) in 3:20 at 132.

With Bedford's Kenny Collins and Toby Brett (15-3) weighed in at 138, Collins went at 138, and Brett received a forfeit at 145. C-K's Cole Hypes headlocked Collins to his back and pinned him in 1:23.

"You could see they way that they matched up we had the upper hand in a lot of the matchups," Creps said. "A lot of the matchups that were tossups didn't go our way today, but I think they just wrestled a little bit better than we did in some of those weights. Overall, our good kids are really wrestling well."